MEDIATHEK

Asociación Hoquetus & Camerata del Gran Teatro Falla (Cádiz, Spain), together with Festival Iberoamerico de Teatro de Cádiz (FIT), commissioned Lauri Toivio to write a chamber opera to be performed at the festival 2012 in Cádiz. The city was chosen as the cultural capital of the Ibero-American world (Latin America, Portugal, Spain) for the same year. The Finnish Institute in Madrid and the City of Cádiz had signed an agreement of cultural exchange for the years 2008–12, including co-operated projects. The patron of this agreement was the former president of FInland, Mrs. Tarja Halonen. She visited the festival in 2012 and was present at the performance of the opera in Cádiz.

In Finland, the production had co-operation with Music Theatre Kapsäkki, Helsinki. The theater is known for its high quality productions especially in the genre of music theatre, including stagings of numerous chamber operas by contemporary FInnish composers. The opera got its first performance in Kapsäkki November 2, 2012, by singers Veera Railio and Juha Kotilainen, with Uusinta Ensemble conducted by the composer Lauri Toivio. One week later in Cádiz, the FIT festival highlighted both the cultural capital year of Cádiz and the co-operation with the Finnish exchange, through the first Spanish staging of "Isabella". It was performed by the again by Railio, Kotilainen and Uusinta Ensemble, conducted by the composer.

The libretto, written in Spanish by Peruvian-Finnish author Maritza Núñez, was finished in April 2011. Toivio started composition the same year in September in Paris, and continued it in Finland next spring. The score was completed just under the premiere in October 2012.